


Lightning

by SquiggleWriter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Colour changing plant, Doris - Freeform, Harry Potter Has a Pet Snake, Harry has a brain (hopefully), Harry has a plant, harry - Freeform, vi - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26630308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquiggleWriter/pseuds/SquiggleWriter
Summary: Harry's adventures with a pet snake, colour changing plant and maybe he'll even have brain cells (who knows)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter One

Chapter One

_ Parseltongue - letters  _

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me and sadly never will, none of this belongs to me except the plot, Doris and Vi, the rest belongs to J.K Rowling**

Harry loved two things in life. His plant and his snake. He loved his snake because she was his friend. He had found her behind the school bins one day. Boy, had that been a shock when he found out he could talk to snakes! She was a bright green snake with black eyes, rather small as well, if she stretched out, she was about as big as Harry's middle finger. She said she was only young and would grow bigger. Harry didn’t know what kind of snake she was, she said that she had come from a room full of glass boxes and other snakes. Harry assumed that this was a pet shop. Harry had looked at the picture book about snakes in school and they had found out that she was a smooth green snake from America, would only grow to about the length of his hand, and that she wasn’t venomous. (This was a bit disappointing. How cool would it be to have a venomous snake to bite people for you!) Harry had then realised at this point that she hadn’t said her name. Apparently, snakes weren’t given names, so together they found the perfect one. Vi. Harry knew it wasn’t much of a name but Vi liked the sound of the letter V in the alphabet. Harry made sure to hide her from the Dursleys because there was no doubt that if they found out then they would kill her. 

Harry loved his plant because it was his. Harry didn’t know what kind of plant it was, it had a little clay pot Harry had made in school with Ms Green. He liked Ms Green as well he supposed, because she helped him make the pot for his plant. Anyway, back to the plant. The plant lived in the clay pot and had pretty little vines that curled down the sides. In the middle of the pot was a big flower. It was a kind of star shaped and was currently purple. Currently purple because it changed colour randomly. When Harry had found it in Aunt Petunia's garden near the shed, he had tried to keep track of the colours but gave up when the plant turned thirty-seven different colours in one day. Back to present time and the plant (which Harry had named Doris) had been purple for a week, which Harry thought rather odd because usually Doris changed colour at least once every two days. Vi usually (when she wasn’t with him) lived in the plant as well, under the flower and leaves. 

A banging on the cupboard door woke Harry from his musings with a jolt. 

“Freak! Get up and I expect breakfast on the table within the next hour!” 

“Coming Aunt Petunia.” 

Really Harry had no idea why she shouted so, it wasn’t like the cupboard door was soundproof or anything. It would be nicer if it was, but then again Harry had no idea how to soundproof a door. Would it involve putting something over the door? Some kind of foam maybe? But that would mean the cupboard would be even smaller with something covering the door, protruding into his space. Stroking a petal on Doris and scooping up Vi in his hand, Harry pushed the cupboard door open (Aunt Petunia had unlocked it earlier, how nice of her) and scrambled out. 

After making what smelt like a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs for the Dursleys, and snagging a bit of toast to eat later, Harry found himself looking at a heavy parchment letter. Now this was strange enough but what was stranger still was that it was addressed to him! Him!  _ Mr Harry Potter,  _ written in fancy, loopy handwriting on the front! Harry, although in shock, was not about to let this go to waste. So, when Uncle Vernon yelled from the kitchen that he was taking too long, Harry stuffed the letter down his oversized shirt. If he was a bit rectangular that morning, no one commented on it. 

When Aunt Petunia was at the library, Dudley at a friend’s house, and Uncle Vernon at some meeting, Harry took Doris from his cupboard and took both Doris and the letter to the living room. A moment like this was important, so Harry sat on the sofa. Opening the letter carefully to save the paper (Harry didn’t get paper very often, if at all, and Vi liked to build nests in shredded bits), Harry read that he had been accepted to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry! 

_ “Vi!”  _ Harry hissed excitedly 

Vi stuck her head out of Harry's sleeve where she had been curled around his wrist and looked up at him.

_ “Vi I got a letter saying I can go to a magic school!” _

Vi flicked her tongue out in confusion  _ “What is magic”  _

After Harry had explained what magic was to his snake he looked at the letter again. The letter included what he needed to buy for his new school supplies, a ticket for the Hogwarts Express, and a personal letter from the deputy headmistress explaining how to get to Diagon Alley (where he had to get his school supplies), How to access his money that his parents had left him, how to get onto platform 9 ¾  _ and _ what the deputy headmistress described as his ‘special circumstances’. Apparently, she thought that the Dursleys had told him all about magic already but felt that he should have a clearer idea of what to expect. 

_ Dear Mr Potter,  _

__

_ I believe that you are already aware of the special circumstances surrounding you. However, I cannot be sure of how much your guardians know, or how much they saw fit to disclose to you. As you are just now entering the wizarding world it is prudent to inform you of the full story of what happened that fateful night.  _

__

_ You and your parents were in hiding during the second wizarding war as he-who-must-not-be-named was targeting them. They were using what is known as the ‘fidelius charm’, a charm that completely hides the area under the charm from the outside world. It was very popular before and during the first wizarding war against the dark lord Grindelwald. However, the charm requires a secret keeper, the secret keeper is the only one who can disclose the whereabouts of the area under the fidelius charm. Your parent’s secret keeper was Mr Black, a close friend of your fathers. Devastatingly, Mr Black betrayed your parents and saw fit to inform he-who-must-not-be-named of your location. He-who-must-not-be-named went to your house on Halloween and killed both your father and mother with the killing curse, an unstoppable and very dark curse that kills instantly upon impact. But when he turned his wand to you, the killing curse rebounded back to him, leaving you with only a scar on your forehead and defeating he-who-must-not-be-named. Because of this night you are hailed as the ‘Boy Who Lived’ and you must understand that you are very well known, particularly in Britain. I might suggest covering your scar as it is your most recognisable feature and should therefore prevent any attacks that followers of he-who-must-not-be-named might attempt. Let me make myself clear that this is extremely unlikely, but it would be sensible to do so just in case.  _

__

_ Additionally, as I do not believe the Dursleys are aware of this, your parents left you a great deal of money that I advise you to spend wisely. Should you not have your vault key, go to Gringotts in Diagon Alley, and state your name and business to a bank teller. Diagon Alley is located in central London. Go to the Leaky Cauldron between  _ _ 48 Charing Cross Road and 12 Great Newport Street _ _ and request that Tom, the owner, let you into Diagon Alley. In order to get to platform 9 ¾ where the Hogwarts express leaves, simply run towards the barrier in-between platforms 9 and 10.  _

__

_ The rest of the information concerning your schooling can be found in the other letters which go out to every first-year student.  _

__

_ Yours sincerely,  _

__

_ Deputy Headmistress McGonagall.  _

__

The other pages Harry was a little bit in shock. He could accept he was a wizard; he might be naïve but even he knew that a changing colour plant and a talking snake just weren't normal. And that wasn’t even the weirdest thing to happen around him. There was that time he turned his teacher’s hair blue, and that one where he broke that glass, and that time when the cat breathed purple fire, not to mention the one with the rubbish truck and the chameleon! Thinking about it, a  _ lot _ of weird things happened around him. Harry picked up Doris, Vi curled up on his chest, and set the letter down gently on the sofa. 

**Ok then, Yay! First chapter complete. Please review this if you can, no flames, but I’m all for constructive criticism! I will try to update regularly. Enjoy!**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two 

_ Parseltongue  _

**Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me, excluding the plot, Doris, and Vi. It’s all J.K Rowlings**

_ Previously: Harry picked up Doris, Vi curled up on his chest, and set the letter down gently on the sofa.  _

When the Dursleys got back that evening to a delicious supper on the table, a sparkling clean house and quiet music playing in the background, they were in a marginally better mood than normal. It was because of this that Harry managed to persuade Vernon Dursley to take him to London so he could get his school supplies. Vernon agreed because he had to go up to London that weekend for a conference anyway. It was because of  _ this  _ that Harry was off to magic school! 

Vernon Dursley dropped Harry off a few blocks away from the Leaky cauldron with a 

“Hurry  _ up _ Boy! - I’ll be late!” 

And a “Be back here at 7:00pm sharp!” 

Before driving off, leaving the eleven year old boy to fend for himself. Harry followed Vi’s hissed directions to the Leaky Cauldron, subconsciously flattening his fringe over his scar - just in case. He had stolen some of Petunia's make-up to cover it but as he had no idea how to use makeup he didn’t think it looked very good. Vi agreed with him and Doris turned an ugly shade of green when he showed her. When Harry got to a shabby looking pub - the kind you'd normally avoid - he assumed it was the Leaky Cauldron. But just in case he sat on a bench nearby and watched as multiple people walked past without even noticing the existence of the pub. Eventually an oddly dressed brown haired couple with a little girl a few years younger than him headed inside. Harry thought that these could be magical people like him because he saw the brown haired man take out a stick before they went in. Maybe the stick was a wand! An actual real magic wand!

Unable to contain his excitement Harry got up - much to the displeasure of Vi, who had got quite comfortable in the pocket of his overlarge jeans - and practically skipped towards the dingy pub. Harry burst in through the doors, gaining quite a few stares. Blushing he looked down and shuffled to the counter at the front. 

“Want to get inta Diagon Alley yeah?” The balding man asked 

Harry nodded “Yes please Mr”

“Just call me Tom” he smiled reassuringly. 

Harry gave an awkward half grin back and followed the hunched man through the door at the side round the back of the pub. Tom pulled out a long slender stick with pretty swirls going up the sides. Harry realised that this must be his wand. Vi stuck her head out from his pocket.

_ “That is his wand? It is a girl wand” _

Tom nearly dropped said wand in shock. 

“Sorry,” Harry said in mortification. “I know it's a bit rude - she doesn’t get out much.”

“Blimey! Dear God boy” Harry flinched, Tom carried on, unawares. “You don’t have to apologise for it - her! I was a bit surprised that you had a snake, that's all. ‘ang on did you  _ understand  _ her!”.

“Yes? Said Harry, slightly confused “Is that not normal?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s a common ability - no. Well not here in England at least. I know for a fact that them over in the warmer place have a few more. Parkelltongues? Nah that aint it, Parseltongues! you’re called parseltongues.” Tom grinned again. “You could make quite a bit o’ cash with that talent! My cousin - ‘es a dragon handler over in Romania and I know they’re lookin’ for a parseltongue to help them understand and look after the dragons good and proper. Before I forget - what exactly did your snake want ta know anyway?” 

Harry flushed, embarrassed. “Well Vi was just asking why your wand looks like that.”

“Why it looks so girly, yeah?”

Harry nodded again. 

“Well you can tell your snake - Vi ain’t it? That the wand chooses the wizard! Can’t all be having wands that match how we’re lookin on the outside now can we?”

Harry thought this over before nodding again in agreement. It did make sense. Tom proceeded to tap some seemingly random bricks on the wall with his pretty wand before standing back with flourish. “Welcome to Diagon Alley.”

Harry stepped through the wall and into a whole new world.  _ “Wow Vi! This place is amazing!” _

Vi hissed in agreement from where she was watching out his pocket. 

_ “Pick me up! I can not see well from down here.”  _

Harry complied, placing Vi in his hair where she could see the world around her. If he got a few strange looks from other shoppers he didn’t notice. Harry headed over to the first shop on his list he had made in preparation. _ ‘Mr & Mr Lopez: Wand crafting’ _ . The letter he had been sent had included a helpful list of shops and reviews that he had looked at for hours to determine where to get the best equipment for the best quality. 

Harry walked into the shop and a bell dinged as he entered. “Ah! Hello young man, here to purchase your first wand I presume?” Harry nodded in confirmation of this while the man had already whirled around to grab a tape measure. “Now then fine sir, if you would just hang on a sec while I grab my husband and we’ll get you sorted in a jiffy.” With that the man - who must have been in his thirties or forties - whirled around dramatically, the tape measure trailing off his shoulders like a cloak, and marched to the back of the shop. Harry giggled and waited for him to return. A second or so later the man walked back, this time accompanied by a shorter man with blond hair rather than brown. The blond man introduced himself as Dave and the taller, brown haired one was called Roderick. 

“I’m Harry” Harry said “and this is Vi” He gestured up at Vi, who was curled around a couple of strands of his hair. 

“A pleasure to meet you Master Harry and beautiful Lady Vi.” Roderick held his hand out for Harry to high five, which he did, and then, much to Harry's amusement and delight, did the same for Vi, who patted his finger with her tail and gave a little hiss. Dave then took Harry's arm and stretched it out experimentally. His fingernails turned neon yellow. Dave looked at his hand in surprise before smiling. 

“Why I think I might keep it, matches my hair!” he laughed and grabbed the tape measure from Roderick. “Ok then Harry, just stay still and wait for the tape measure to do its thing.”

The tape measures ‘thing’ turned out to be measuring everything possible to measure about Harry's hands and arms. After it finished there it moved onto his feet. Harry looked up at Roderick and Dave in confusion. 

“Just in case,” Roderick explained. “You never know, one day you might need your wand but not be able to grab it with your hand.” 

Dave shook his head in exasperation. “I’ve been trying to get him to stop this for years, but nooo he insists it’s necessary.”

“It is necessary! Why, my sister's ex boyfriend's wife's uncle - you know him? Francis remember? - cousin's friend’s daughter’s previous goldfish owner was  _ nearly  _ in a situation where it was necessary!”

Dave laughed and took back the tape measure that had finished measuring Harry's toenails. “Alrighty then. If you would just wait here while Roderick and I go find some possible matches.”

Harry waited for what felt like eternity but couldn't have been more than a two minutes, until they came back with seven or eight boxes. “So these boxes are what are the most likely match for you. Based on the data provided by the finger:hand:FKFD ratio -” 

Harry cut Roderick off “sorry the FKFD?”

“Ah yes, fingernail, knuckle, finger dexterity. When put into a ratio like this it shows us-”

Roderick was once again cut off, but this time by Dave. “I’m sure Harry doesn’t want to know about all that Roderick, just put the wands down.”

Harry was instructed to pick up each wand and ‘give it a wave’. He didn’t know exactly what to expect but did as he was told. The second wand felt like a perfect match but he was told that there might be a better match in the remaining six and you  _ never  _ stopped on the first ‘match’. 

Harry tried the rest of the wands and sure enough, when he went through them all the second time, it was the first wand that matched with him. The wand, according to Roderick and Dave, was maple, 12 inches and had a thunderbird feather core. As a souvenir they gave him a free thunderbird wing feather. Harry tried to give it back, he couldn't possibly take a potential wand core with him! But he needn’t have worried. The Wing feather wasn’t willingly given and therefore had no magical properties as a wand core - “although,” Roderick said thoughtfully, “If you tickle someone with it, it might give them a little zap.”

Harry left the wand shop happily. His brand new wand in his hand. It was a pretty dark orangey colour with what looked like electric blue glowing cracks or bolts of lightning running down it, stopping above the handle which was just where the wood thickened out to make holding it easier. Harry looked around and headed to the next shop on his list.

**End of second chapter! I meant to have all of the shopping trip in this chapter but it dragged out for longer than I expected. Sorry that Doris wasn’t really in this one, Harry didn’t take her with him to Diagon Alley. Hope you enjoyed!**


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three 

_ Parseltongue _

**None of this except the plot and a few characters belong to me - it all belongs to JK Rowling. I would like to claim Rodrick and Dave from chapter two though, I forgot to.**

_ Previously: Harry looked around and headed to the next shop on his list. _

The pin sunk into his arm. “Oh shiiiiiii-ooot” the shop assistant said. “Sorry about that- I haven't been doing this long!” Harry gave a weak grin. He was currently at Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions to get his standard uniform. “Alight then love, just hop down for me - there we go” The shop assistant seemed to have recovered from the earlier embarrassment of stabbing his arm and bustled through a side door - presumably to get his robes made. 

“Hogwarts as well?” a snobby voice sounded from Harry's left. “I’m Draco Malfoy.” the blond continued. The now named Draco raised an eyebrow in expectation. Harry flushed, realising he was awaiting for an introduction. 

“Umm I’m Harry - Harry Potter.” 

_ “Stupid.”  _ Vi hissed to him.  _ “You told him your last name! Now he knows who you are.” _

Luckily for Harry, Draco seemed far more interested that The-Boy-who-Lived had a pet snake rather than the fact he was The-Boy-Who-Lived. 

“What kind of snake is that? Is it poisonous?” Draco asked, eyes fixed on Vi. 

“She's not venomous, don’t worry” Harry said, “And her name is Vi.” They happily talked for a while longer - Draco was fascinated by Vi - and agreed to stay friends when they went to Hogwarts, even if they got into different houses (There were four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Harry liked the idea of Ravenclaw the most, although Draco seemed to think they’d both be in Slytherin, which was, in his words, the best Hogwarts house) At this point the assistant came back in with a neatly wrapped parcel of clothes.

“Here you go love. I popped in some casual robes as well as your standard school and winter. That's ok?” Harry thought it was a bit late to be asking if it was ok now that she had already wrapped up the parcel but nodded and accepted it nonetheless. As Harry made his way over to the counter to pay for his robes he noticed Draco talking to another blond with aristocratic features - his dad maybe? But before he got a chance to go over he was practically pushed out the shop, purchases in arms. He wondered if magical people had a place he could leave reviews. Not great customer service. Now if only he had a place he could put the robes. Wrapped up they were getting rather heavy like this. 

Harry had previously decided to go to a shop across the street called ‘Trunks, Bags and Repairs! Everything you could want to satisfy your storage needs.’ Harry let Vi curl up on his head again like a tiny green hat and walked into the third shop that day. He didn't need anything too extravagant he thought. Just a basic trunk for school supplies and a bag to carry his books in. And that was exactly what he got. A dark maple coloured trunk and a light blue rucksack to match his wand, both with feather light and expansion charms. Harry got the trunk with a shrinking charm as well, activated with a triple tap by a wand. He shrunk the trunk and tucked it into his bag, which he then put on his back. Harry now needed to get his books. What he had most been looking forward to.

He headed to Flourish and Blotts, the best bookstore according to what he knew. A glance inside told him just how busy it was and he headed in with no small amount of trepidation. Weaving through the crowded shelves Harry quickly discovered a collection of books titled ‘book pack: first years, 1991’ He thought that was rather convenient and grabbed a set before meandering off to look at the rest of the books. Harry found a bookshelf labelled Herbology that seemed to be dedicated to books about magical plants. Harry took the book closest to him and flicked through it absently, noting fun facts that any ten-nearly-eleven year old would notice, such as pouring conjured water over the aptly named explosion plant would cause, well, an explosion! Interestingly foxglove was also in the book. Harry had never noticed anything remotely magical about foxgloves but he supposed that didn’t mean it wasn’t.

Harry browsed the book shop some more after adding a few books on plants to his collection. Vi hissed out a warning just before they bumped into a ginger haired boy. The freckled beanstalk paled to truly exceptional levels when he spotted Vi.

“It’s ok!” Harry was quick to reassure, “she won’t hurt you.”

“Can’t or won’t?” the other boy mumbled, stepping backwards.

Harry thought the red head was being a bit silly with his overreaction - Vi was only tiny afterall, but he answered “both” anyway. 

“I’m Ron” the boy introduced himself, seeming a bit better now he realised how small and harmless Vi was. Before Harry could also introduce himself Ron was abruptly yanked away by a thin balding man who had the same red hair as Ron. The man was glaring at someone behind Harry's head who smoothly introduced himself.

“Good Afternoon young man, my name is Lucius Malfoy.” Twisting so Harry didn't have to crane his neck backwards like an idiot, Harry saw an elegant blond man - the one from the shop earlier! “I believe I saw you previously today in Madam Malkins, my son, Draco, was going to introduce us and when I saw you here I could hardly waste such an opportunity to meet the object of Dracos consent pestering, unless, of course, you are conversing with this…” Mr Malfoy looked over to Ron and the man “..rabble”. Harry flushed indignantly at the jab aimed at Ron and his family, but he had only just met Ron and Draco had seemed very nice….maybe Ron's family had done something bad to this man.

He gave a hesitant smile to Mr Malfoy. “Hi- I mean good afternoon Mr Malfoy. My name is Harry Potter.” He suspected that Mr Malfoy already knew this as apparently Draco had been talking about him, but it was only polite to introduce himself. 

A voice came from behind him. “Wonderful now that we’ve got the introductions out of the way Harry can come back to shopping with us yes?” Harry twisted around again to see that it was a red haired woman, probably related to the thin man and Ron. 

“Excuse me?” Harry asked, thoroughly confused. “I don’t think I’ve met you before”. 

The woman flushed. “Well since you and Ron seem to get on so well I assumed you would be completing the rest of your shopping with us, of course there’s no way you could possibly be left to wander around Diagon Alley by yourself!” Harry was about to point out that he and Ron had only just met and that he’d been doing just fine by himself so far thank you very much when Mr Malfoy cut in again with a sneer. 

“If you insist that Mr Potter must have adult supervision to complete his shopping then I’m sure he would be far more inclined to do so with my son and myself as they’re already friends”. At this Harry nodded eagerly. He would rather finish shopping with Mr Malfoy and Draco than with people he’d barely met. Mr Malfoy smirked, “Well then it seems Mr Potter has made his decision so we’ll be off then.” he gestured towards the front of the shop and walked off in that direction with Harry following, Vi curled around his wrist. 

**And that concludes chapter 3. Sorry about the long wait, I’ll try to update more regularly in the future! :)**


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